Then I will never hurt my dog,
Nor ever give him pain,
But I will always treat him kind,
And he will love again.
If the children do not appear so bright as the teacher should desire, the before-mentioned ditty, after it has been repeated, may be sung. But the tune must be such as would be likely to operate upon the moral feelings; great caution and circumspection is necessary in selecting proper times for children, and this must be guided by the subject treated of. If the subject is exhilarating, a lively tune must be selected; if the subject is serious, a corresponding tune must also be chosen; but if the subject is intended to operate upon the feelings, what is usually called "a love tune" will be the most desirable. The tune having been sung, and the feelings operated upon as desired, the teacher may entertain the little pupils with some one of the numerous stories written about the dog. But before he does this, he must exhaust so much of the subject as appears in the before-mentioned ditty, by question and answer, similar to the other lessons mentioned before, something like the following:—
Little children; you have just sung that you would never hurt a little dog, can you tell me why not? Some of the children will be sure to say, Please, sir, because he has got the sense of feeling. Teacher. Right, a little dog has got the same sense of feeling as you little children have, and when it is hurt, how does it shew that it has got the sense of feeling? Children. Please, sir, it will cry out. Teacher. Yes, it can only tell us it is hurt by doing so. A poor dog cannot speak, and so we should never hurt it. Has a little fly the sense of feeling? Children. Yes, sir. Teacher. Right again, and so has every creature that God gave life to, and we should never give any of them unnecessary pain. In the song that we have just sung, you said you would stroke and pat the little dog's head. What would you do this for? Children. Please, sir, the little dog likes it, and he is not afraid of us when we do it, but loves us. Teacher. So he does, and will always love those that are kind to him; no one but a very bad boy would be unkind to a dog. You told me, little children, that a poor little dog cries out when it is hurt. Now when he is pleased, what does he do? Please, sir, he wags his tail, and his eyes look very bright. Teacher. So he does, which is the same as if he said, How happy I am to be with such good children who do not beat me as some wicked boys and girls would, but love me and pat my head, and feed me; for you, little children, you have said you liked to see your little dog fed, and remember, any of you that have a little dog, or who may have one when you get older and larger, that it is very cruel not to see it fed every day; the poor dog cannot ask for its dinner as a little child can, and that is the, very reason why we should always remember to give it to him. Will you all remember this? Children. Yes, sir, we will. Teacher. You sung in your song that the dog was very useful, tell me how? Children, Please, sir, he will mind the house, and bark when any one comes to steal anything. Teacher. Yes, you see how sensible the little dog is, he knows what a wicked thing it is to be a thief, and so he barks when he sees one. How else is a little dog useful? Children. Please, sir, they often lead poor blind people about. Teacher. So they do, and good faithful guides they are. When they see any danger they will lead their master out of it, and they will bring him safely through the crowded streets; and when they go home the poor blind man divides his bit of bread with his good dog; and dogs are useful in other ways, they catch hares and rabbits for their masters, and do many other things. You said also that the dog minded what he was bid to do, did you not? Children. Yes, sir, and they will often go back a long way for any thing they are bid, or stay all day minding their master's coat while he is at work. Teacher. Right, and little children when they will not do as they are desired are not so good as a little dog, and should take example by one. Do you remember what you said the dog would do if you treated him kindly? Children. Please, sir, that he would love us again. Teacher. Right. When we love any thing, a dog, or a horse, or a little lamb, it will love us again; for you know, little children, that love makes love, and if you all love one another, and are kind to one another, and never beat or strike each other with any thing, then you will all be very happy, no little children in the world will be more happy, or have prettier smiling faces than you will have; for when we look kind and pleasant we always look pretty, but when we look cross and angry, then we look ugly and frightful. Remember then, never be cruel to a dog, or any thing else, but think of this lesson, and the pretty song we sung. Now, little children, shall I tell you a story, a real true story about a very cruel boy? If the children say, Yes, the following may be related.
A poor little dog was once going along the streets of a town, and a carriage which was coming up the street very fast, ran over it, and the poor thing was very nearly killed, but it had still strength to crawl over to a house where a boy was standing at the door, and it began to whine and looked up in the boy's face, as if to say, you see how much I am hurt, so please take me in and try and cure me; but the boy was a very cruel boy, and had no pity on the poor dog, but took a large pot of boiling water and threw it over the poor wounded little dog, so that it died soon after in very dreadful pain. But the chief governor of the place, that is, the person whom the king had put there to punish wicked people, heard of what a cruel thing this bad boy had done. So he brought him up to the market place, and he made a man take off this cruel boy's clothes, and lash him on the bare back before all the people of the town, in order that he might know a little of the pain that the poor dog had felt. From this story, little children, you may learn, that you must not begin to be cruel, if you do, the habit will grow up with you as it did with this bigger boy, and will never leave you, even when you are men.
Such lessons as these, given at proper times and when the infant mind is in a fit state to receive them, will do more to prevent what you wish to avoid, than any thing which could be possibly done at a more advanced age; this is indeed moral training, and when such is given generally in infant schools, we may look forward to a generation very superior to the present, in the genuine parts of Christianity, and in every moral and social virtue.
The beneficial results of moral training have been practically shown in every infant school where the subject has been properly understood and carried out, and numerous anecdotes illustrative of its beneficial effects might be here introduced, which would convince those who have any doubt on the subject, of the good effects of exercising kindness and consideration for others, in opposition to reckless mischief, hardheartedness, and cruelty, vices which render the lower orders dangerous and formidable; but as a complete collection of such anecdotes would form in themselves a volume, we will for the present lay before our readers a few taken at random, to illustrate the subject; they are from the appendix of the first report of the Edinburgh Infant School Society, the model school of which was organized by the author of this book.
"Two of the children, brothers, about five and four years of age, coming one morning late into school, were to go to their seats without censure, if they could give an account of what they had been doing, which should be declared satisfactory by the whole school, who should decide; they stated separately that they had been contemplating the proceedings of a large caterpillar, and noticing the different positions of its body as it crossed their path, that it was now horizontal, and now perpendicular, and presently curved, and finally inclined, when it escaped into a tree. The master then asked them abruptly, Why did you not kill it? The children stared. Could you have killed it? asked the teacher. Yes, but that would have been cruel and naughty, and a sin against God. The little moralists were acquitted by acclamation; having, infants as they were, manifested a character which, were it universal in the juvenile population, would in another generation reduce our moral code to a mass of waste paper, in one grand department of its bulk.
"This anecdote illustrates the good effect of inculcating into the infant mind an abhorrence of cruelty to animals, which is too often a seed sown in the young heart, which goes on increasing daily with the growth of the child, until a fearful career of crime is ended by murder, and its necessary expiation on the scaffold. How many men who have suffered death for murder, could date their first steps towards it, from the time when in infancy they tortured a fly, or spun a cock-chaffer.
"The teacher mentioned to the children one day, that he had been occupied about a boy and a girl who had no father or mother, and whose grandfather and grandmother, who took care of them, were bed-rid and in great poverty. The boy was seven years of age, too old for the infant school, but some gentlemen, he said, were exerting themselves to get the boy into one of the hospitals. Here he purposely stopped to try the sympathies of his audience for the girl. He was not disappointed, several little voices called out at once, 'Oh! master! What for no the lassie too?' he assured them the girl was to come to the infant school, and to be boarded there; which intelligence was received with loud plaudits."
Here we see the seeds of philanthropy sown in the young mind, beginning, even in infancy, to burst and blossom forth, giving promise in after years of a glorious and abundant harvest. The germ of love and mercy is in every breast, and cannot fail to be developed, if early called into action; and by the blessing of Almighty God, who is the great First Cause of all good results, the day is fast approaching, yea, is now at hand, when the fierce passions, the love of self, the long catalogues of debasing crimes, which have so long disgraced human nature, will give way before a golden age of true Christianity; when man will not be arrayed against his fellow-men, but all will go hand in hand together in the bond of love, seeking to do good, and to accomplish the purposes for which they were created by an all-wise and all-benevolent God.